#DailyProverbs First, I am okay. I am fine. Today is further proof that God always puts me right where He wants me. And it’s further proof that I still have to learn submission and trust that God is in control. God is in control even when I don’t see it, feel it, or think He is… Chicago fires prevented me from traveling home this weekend and it upset my plans. MY plans. Sister Kim had asked me to handle the music and I proudly sent out my email to Nuevo Destino and I planned the songs. Sis. Kim W. asked me to teach at Destination Deliverance. I planned a great teaching message. Then God interrupted it all… I am NOT a person that thinks every flat tire, every hurt feeling, every dream, every air traffic fire or every coincidence is a “God thing” and I don’t subscribe that every single thing on the planet is spiritual… but I may have to start rethinking my stance on that. Chicago fires = MK can’t go home. MK’s best laid plans are interrupted and I am upset. Except… why? What did God have for me that I didn’t plan? What was so critical that it interrupt my super weekend at church? Enter my new friend in Des Moines… hungry for God, and wanting me to share a Jesus experience with her. We had dinner a week or two ago, and I shared my testimony with her. Now, if you KNOW my testimony, then you will understand why we both ended up in tears, and why she wanted me to speak to her Sunday School class about the healing and the Holy Ghost. She is precious. Since God had me here, this weekend, at THIS time.. why not visit her church now? Why not come now and share fellowship and Jesus with someone that loves God? We make the plans, I get ready and she picks me up for a Saturday night service. (It’s Lutheran and while I confess that I do not know all of their customs, they have both a Saturday and Sunday AM service… UM. Brilliant.) On the way, we experience a car wreck. She gets rear-ended and there are THREE wrecks around us simultaneously and we are both FINE. Her truck back fender is not. The poor dude that rear ended us is not. I pray. She cries. I tell her God has us and look at the hand of God protecting us. She agrees. We pray. We get help. Cops come. She asks what we do next. We pray. I tell her that since we were headed to church anyway, we might as well get on to church. We get to church. There are tears. We pray. There is talking and stress and anxiety… and God just… shows up. I pray. There are stammering lips. We pray. There are more tears. She has to handle some logistical issues due to the wreck. I take a cab back to my hotel. Then, since he picked me up at church… he asks about my accent and my faith. My cabbie is a backslidden Pentecostal that’s been pondering going back to church. I’m already over the edge. More tears. We pray. I pray with him. There is a full blown presence of the Holy Ghost and I mean tongues and tears and chills. So, I’m in a hotel in Des Moines…sitting. I’m writing this down for a reason. There was a message given to me and it’s about the surprise of Jesus. See, in the middle of MY plans, in the middle of the changes to MY plans, and in the middle of my whining and fussing about me not getting my EXACT way to be in Clearwater, Florida at MY church with MY people working on MY little spot in God’s Kingdom and doing MY thing… God showed up, God showed out and God surprised me. That’s the message… Every time Jesus showed up in scripture, He surprised us. Every time: --When he was conceived, it was a surprise because it was to the seemingly wrong girl, in the wrong circumstance. --When He was born, it was surprising that He was in a barn with animals and to low circumstance. --He wasn’t really mentioned much about his actual childhood, but the next appearance at twelve… surprising that He gets lost, and rebukes His parents, noting that OF COURSE He’d be in His Father’s House, about His Father’s business. --No mention for a while and then… surprisingly enough, He – the only flesh ever to walk without sin – steps into a muddy river and asks for Baptism and begins quietly. --He surprises us by turning down every temptation. Let Jesus surprise you. Let the King of Kings and Lord of Lords surprise you. Maybe you are out of church altogether. Maybe you are in sin and have seen and done it all. Maybe nothing can surprise you. Let God. Maybe you are an ex-minister and tired of us clamoring on about “Jeebus” and you are so above it all. Don’t let the world put you in the place to where you think you know it all and are above it all. Jesus can still surprise you. Maybe you are in church… maybe you are TOO comfortable in church. Maybe you NEED Jesus to surprise you because you feel that the spirit and presence of God is mundane and a chore. Maybe you are weary of well doing? Maybe God needs to remind you and surprise you of what can be accomplished with just the smallest speck of faith. Maybe you need to remember what it’s like to be surprised that God would love you, and touch you, and allow you the privilege of His Presence. Wherever you are, whatever your circumstance… don’t give up yet. Jesus can STILL surprise you and make all things new. He can take your specific situation, mess it up, and fix it back JUST RIGHT. I’m living proof in testimony. I’m healed. I’m alive. I’m not dead. I’m in church. Me, Michael Kennedy… in church, filled with the Holy Ghost, being submissive to God’s ministry. That’s surprising... if you knew me, youd be bowled over, just like I am. God will save someone NOT worth saving… He did it for me. Trust me… you’ll be surprised.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 01:01:42 +0000
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